Paul,
Looks like not a lot to do, pretty clean?
love that snare.. It is COS?
Cheers

What a sweet set of tubes...Congrats!!!!!!!!!!! The set exhudes elegance...I bet they sound as nice as they look...

"Are there any numbers inside the shell? Have you got photos you'd share? Even the interior, ply count, rim profile, stuff like that - I'd love to see it."

Here it is. The hoops were not original either. It came with a set of oyster blue pearl ludwigs. To my horror this drum was in place of the original. It looked right in the pics on the ad but that's another story. I had no idea what it was and nobody here could identify it either. It was only when I was reading a biography of Stevie Wright from the Easybeats that I recognised the drum from the Drouyn kit that Snowy Fleet played.

It has numbers in ballpoint pen on the inside of the shell T404 and 144. Unfortunately I don't have the drum here to count the plies but you get an idea in the pic.

Originally Posted by larryvonludwig

Very interesting. Nice looking kit. So, was Ludwig a willing partner in the snares? Is it just speculation that Ludwig shells were "borrowed"? larry

Well it seems to be quite well reported. Although until I get a primary source; it's not certain I guess. I think it quite likely. Drouyn had a business relationship with Premier for parts; no reason why they wouldn't have one with Ludwig, who probably had no qualms at all about selling a few Supra shells to an Australian manufacturer. Un-drilled shells, straight from the plant - easy money.

Originally Posted by OsakaBop

Thank you so much for posting the photos and info. on these drums- this kind of thing makes this site a treasure.

My pleasure - glad you liked them.

Originally Posted by Jon Petersen

What a nice kit!

Wouldn´t the wrap be called something like "White Ripple"?

I seem to remember having read somewhere, that the lugs in fact is a pre-war Premier lug, stocks of which were sold to Drouyn.

More on Drouyns here:

http://www.mikedolbear.com/story.asp?StoryID=2902


Regards

Jon

I think you and calfskin might be right about the wrap. Check out how it polished up!

Originally Posted by Fayray

[I]It has numbers in ballpoint pen on the inside of the shell T404 and 144. Unfortunately I don't have the drum here to count the plies but you get an idea in the pic.

The numbers are useful, thanks. What size is this drum?

Originally Posted by longjohn

Paul,
Looks like not a lot to do, pretty clean?
love that snare.. It is COS?
Cheers

Well they are in great nick but I'm stripping each drum, so it's going to take about 4 evenings. Th snare is alloy and it's rumored to be an actual Supra shell.

I played the 13" tom this morning briefly. You know that feeling when you detail and skin a drum and you tune it up and hit it and the note just hangs on nicely and you think "Yes! I didn't blow my dough!" This tom sounds excellent - reminded me of a 60's Ludwig crossed with something else. Very happy.

Thanks to Joeyboom for the tip on Mother's Mag Cleaner. I followed the instructions and didn't go hard. The results are very impressive:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9532680@N04/6804580723/

The numbers are useful, thanks. What size is this drum?

it's a 13"

Beautiful restoration! These drums clearly deserved the effort. Nice!

Very sweet kit!

I had a Meazzi Hollywood (Italian) kit that had roughly the same finish............

I have an Olympic kit in for rewrapping. The wrap is torn, unfortunately.
In the catalogues, it was called White Satin Pearl and seems very similar to the Drouyn wrap , from what I can tell from 15,000 miles. The Premier, brown version of this was called Root Beer Swirl. A similar wrap in the Trixon catalogues was called White Stripes. In the U.S. a similar wrap was called White Ripple but in England, the Burgundy Ripple that Ajax used had more contrast in it and was more similar to Oyster. The Delmar wrap , as sold by Precision is called White Oyster and by ST White Ripple, yet they also have a White Oyster that has some black in it. Drummaker.com(delmar as well) has no White Oyster but they have a Marine Pearl White Ripple , that seems slightly different again(drummaker's photos are terrible) and lastly Jammin Sam's (Delmar as well) has nothing like it at all.
The Meazzi version was coded PVB --Perle Venata Blanca (White Pearl Veins) and to top it all off, I have a Trowa(East German) snare drum from the early 60's with the same wrap on it. Any guesses?

That tom looks really great cleaned up,the more I see those lugs the more I like them. They king of remind of art deco snails.

Hello,
I am in Bendigo, Victoria. I have a 22 x 15 virgin bass drum in the same finish and condition as your kit. It is not the rose alder construction but Queensland maple, the legs are also the retractable (Dandy) type, not the Ludwig copy ones as on your kit. If you are interested in it please let me know at deanscreens@dodo.com.au
I am also pretty sure that Drouyn had the Supraphonic copy Aluminium shells manufactured and plated by a firm in Brisbane and all lugs etc. made by a company on the Sunshine coast. I'm not sure where the Ludwig rumor came from but I have been hearing it for years?
Thanks, Dean